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. 2010 May 11;107 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):8910-7.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.0914614107. Epub 2010 May 5.

Colloquium paper: terrestrial apes and phylogenetic trees

Juan Luis Arsuaga  1
Affiliations

Colloquium paper: terrestrial apes and phylogenetic trees

Juan Luis Arsuaga. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

The image that best expresses Darwin's thinking is the tree of life. However, Darwin's human evolutionary tree lacked almost everything because only the Neanderthals were known at the time and they were considered one extreme expression of our own species. Darwin believed that the root of the human tree was very deep and in Africa. It was not until 1962 that the root was shown to be much more recent in time and definitively in Africa. On the other hand, some neo-Darwinians believed that our family tree was not a tree, because there were no branches, but, rather, a straight stem. The recent years have witnessed spectacular discoveries in Africa that take us close to the origin of the human tree and in Spain at Atapuerca that help us better understand the origin of the Neanderthals as well as our own species. The final form of the tree, and the number of branches, remains an object of passionate debate.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Transcription of the genealogical tree of primates in Darwin’s sketch of 1868. Original is in The Complete Work of Charles Darwin on Line: http://darwin-online.org.uk/. Identifier: CUL-DAR80, image 107.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Changes in body shape in Homo (26).
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Sima de los Huesos (Atapuerca) cranium 4.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Sima de los Huesos (Atapuerca) cranium 5.
Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.
Sima de los Huesos (Atapuerca) cranium 6.
Fig. 6.
Fig. 6.
Sima de los Huesos (Atapuerca) cranium 14.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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